County councillors are people who are elected every four years to represent their local communities. Amongst other things they:
- represent the interests of local people in relation to public services;
- act as leaders, champions and advocates for their communities; and
- engage communities and represent their views on the County Council.
Councillors can also help if you are dissatisfied with a county council service and can sometimes progress the case on your behalf. This is often done in advice surgeries where you can meet with the councillor for your ward and discuss your problem.
As community leaders, councillors also have an annual budget that they can spend on local projects. This is called the Empowering Councillors and Communities Scheme.
Some councillors have special roles within the Council. They may be members of the council's Cabinet, which takes most of the major decisions about how the council is run, or they may be members of scrutiny committees, which examine these decisions and develop new policies for the Cabinet to consider.